The present invention provides significant advantages in the structure and function of the spare tire carrier and winch, and renders the apparatus more efficient and satisfactory in its use, more economical to fabricate, and more versatile in its application. The present invention also provides a longer life for the apparatus and a reduction in the amount of maintenance and replacement required for its operative parts.
The storage of a spare wheel in a vehicle has always been a problem. Designers have found it exceedingly difficult to mount the spare wheel so as to make it accessible and easy to retrieve and replace. Previous devices have proven to be relatively costly to fabricate and a burden on the manipulator, since the devices tend to be heavy in weight, cumbersome in use and less than satisfactory in operation. The construction of the previous devices has oftentimes caused problems that lead to jamming of parts or weakening of supports due to inadvertent misoperation by untrained personnel. By contrast, the present invention can be simply operated by the most inexperienced of persons, and without serious danger to the manipulator and negligible chance of damage to the equipment involved.
The invention resolves various problems heretofore existing in the art with respect to the application of such devices where the load to be lifted, lowered and/or carried thereby is other than essentially directly below and in line with the drum of the winch thereof. At the same time, the invention provides elements for the improved guidance and control of the lift cable which smooths the operation thereof, as well as avoids what has heretofore been a source of early fatigue in the practice of previous devices. The present invention also provides a new and improved overload clutch in the drive system, such that the release of the clutch is more controlled and less abrupt than has been the case during the use of previous devices of this nature.